Steph's Cambodia Blog

Phnom Penh and our last day...

2011-07-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

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We were up at 4am this morning to make sure we make it to Phnom Penh in time to visit the Royal Palace... Actually we switched bus companies and got to PP within 4 hours... Had plenty of time to have breakfast on the river-front in front of the Palace, and then we split into a couple of groups and took a guided tour... To top it all off, the King of Cambodia drove-by as we left!! Check out the photos!! :-)

We stopped-by KFC for lunch - not the healthiest, but the kids don't really need to watch their weight... :-) They LOVED KFC and this was a great way to finish-up our beach holiday...

On the 5.5 hour bus-ride back to the orphanage at Bakong the kids watched some DVDs and slept - of course we had some cookies and bananas as treats as well... :-)

Breakfast at the river-front...

Even the Lion is wearing one of our hats!! :-)))

Mr. K, our tuk-tuk driver from Siem Reap, joined us

at the beach along with his wife and daughter. When we

got to Phnom Penh he asked if he could take a couple of hours

while we were at the Palace and go visit his parents - he hasn't seen

them in 2 years...

The king's lomousine driving through the Palace when we arrived -

getting prepared to go out later in the morning...

In front of the Throne Hall...

The mannequins at the back represent the colours the Royal Household

staff wear on each day of the week... Red on Monday, Orange on Tuesday,

Blue on Wednesday, and so on... :-)

We took lots of individual photos so the kids could make

their own photo albums - this is Dara at the Royal Palace...

The view looking out of the Silver Pagoda, with the Emerald Buddah...

Some of the older kids at one of the Palace Towers...

Kedang in the Palace garden...

And of course Ryan had to find a monk...

Who's actually from Brisbane - g'day mate!!... ;-)

Posing as teapots in front of the teapot topiary... :-)

And as we were leaving the Royal Palace...

The King of Cambodia drove-by...

Look closely and you can actualy see him waving - 2 hands in the back window... :-))

Lunch at KFC... We took-over the restaurant as usual... :-)

Arriving back at the orphanage in Bakong after our beach holiday!! :-)

Our last day - written by Alex, Ryan and Steph -

We woke up this morning to our alarms at 7.30, knowing full well it was the last time we would be woken by this sound in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Also known as our second home...

The three of us went about our morning routine, stopping for breakfast - the usual: Alex: fruit and a muffin, Steph: a panini or watermelon and Ryan: 4 chocolate croissants and a muffin, along with Mr K, our tuk-tuk driver, who loves the chocolate muffin we buy him each morning...

It was fairly common now for us to experience technical difficulties with motor vehicles, so we weren't very surprised when we heard a snap of the tuk-tuk while driving over the bridge... :-))

Mr K called his friend who took us to the orphanage in another tuk-tuk, where we spent the day hanging out with the kids. Today was our very last day so we decided that we would simply "be" with them. Ryan played basketball while Alex had her hair done and Steph played games with the kids...

There was a very different energy at the orphanage today, everyone knew that the end of our amazing trip was very quickly coming to an end. This did not however mean that the laughter and fun slowed down, if anything there were more smiles and laughs packed into the small time we were there...

We were surprised to find out that our plane was leaving earlier than expected, (3 HOURS EARLIER!) - this of course changed all of our plans as we were meant to relax all day and then go out for one last “family dinner.”

When we arrived at the airport, the tears started rolling down our faces but we soon realised that our flight had been delayed for an hour and half (The Buddha answered our prayers!), so we decided to take the kids out for ice-cream... :-) As we ate our ice-cream, we looked at our photos from Sihanoukville and laughed about all the fun memories we shared together...

Then the time came to say our goodbyes, this was by far the saddest moment of our trip, knowing we weren’t going to see their smiling and energetic faces the next day. Our goodbyes went on for what seemed like forever........

On our last day - saying goodbye at the orphanage...

Ice-creams at Dairy Queen at the airport,

while the kids sorted over 1500 photos we took and printed out for them...

Each one got to make their own photo album!! :-)))

The bitter-sweet goodbye at the airport...

We had 2 beautiful weeks with our kids and did so much with them...

Goodbyes are always hard... :-(

A final note from Alex -

First of all I would like to say thank you to Aviv, Michelle and Steph once again for having me on this amazing trip. I'm more than lucky to have such a special second family :)

Steph and Ryan - my partners in crime for 2 weeks. If only recording artists were on the tuk-tuk with us each day - we could be famous!! :-) Thank you both for the laughter - "okay waowwwww" there was a lot of laughter... :-))))

I always learn to be grateful when I return to Cambodia. But this trip has taught me to be truly grateful for absolutely everything. Not just for food, water, shelter, clothing and education. But the gift of the beaches, the sand, the snow, the airplanes and everything that is part of our everyday life that we take for granted.
I was definitely not ready to go back home this time. I know I can speak for Steph when I say Cambodia feels like home to both of us. As we walked from the terminal to the plane, we both stood outside on the tarmac and didn't get on the plane for about 15 minutes... We said to each other "Come on there's still time we can run back"....

But all good things must come to an end, and this trip was no exception.....

Alex

A final note from Ryan -
This was my first trip to Cambodia and not my last... I loved every second of it and the kids have taught me so much about myself and what life has to offer. Hopefully I will see them in the near future!!

Ryan

A final note from Steph -

Going back for the 5th time, I no longer went to a third-world country to see and help less-fortunate people -I went home to see my family... Every day I will miss them and they are forever in my heart...

Steph

This is our final blog for this trip - thanks for taking the journey with us!!
We'll be back to see our kids in Cambodia in December/January... :-)

Alex, Ryan, Steph, Michelle and Aviv

The BIG beach holiday FINALE'... :-)

2011-07-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

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We weren’t going to let our last day slip-away without some more milestones...
The girls all had manicures from the beach vendors ($10 for all of them), and the older boys had a FANTASTIC time driving jet-skis or riding the banana-boat… For 3 hours… Just couldn’t get enough…

After lunch at the beach for the last time, all the kids came back to our guest-house for a swim in the huge pool…

For dinner we hired a restaurant on the beach and had a BBQ at each table!! The kids cooked their dinner of fresh seafood!!

After dinner we broke-out the glow-sticks, turned-on the music and hit the dance-floor!! And when we got tired of dancing, we toasted marshmellows… and ate ice-cream…:-)) If nothing else, the kids were fattened-up this week… :-)

Getting ready for our last day at the beach...

The girls having their manicures... :-)

Steph, Alex and Ryan with some 'locals'... ;-)

The banana-boat crew getting ready to head-out...

with Alex with Leak getting ready to tow them out...

Yippie!!! :-))

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh....... :-))

Veasna with Ryan...

The jet-ski and banana-boat teams...

At the pool in our guest-house...

Say 'cheese'... :-)

Can we get one more on??...

No, we can't... :-))

In our teams getting ready to go to dinner...

The kids were pretty happy to BBQ their own seafood dinner... :-)

And more 'happy campers'...

Getting into a bit of Khmer dancing...

Remember those hats??.... They're probably sleeping with them... :-)))

Some of the younger kids got right into it...

And did they have some moves!!!...

Oooh, these toasted marshmellows are hot!!...

And on fire... :-)

Our 3 fire-pits lined-up...

And just a bit of ice-cream to finish-off the night...

Seyha and Ryan

Hay, Leak and Sehn in a farewell performance for us - GREAT moves!! :-)

Some of the kids in a thank you and farewell presentation to us...

Getting ready to head back after our BIG FINALE' night....

Off to Phnom Penh at 4am tomorrow... :-)

Fishing - and the Movies!!... ;-)

2011-07-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

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The older kids went fishing this morning, while we took the younger kids to the beach. We rented some large tubes for them – and they just couldn’t get enough…

After lunch at our shack at the beach, we headed back to our guest house, which is in a large vocational school. We arranged for the older kids to have a tour of the school, where they teach mechanics, electrical engineering, automotive engineering, secretarial studies and communication – they also have a hotel school. The Don Bosco school caters specifically for poor students and we wanted our kids to see that they have some options should they not be able to make it to university.

At night we hired out the local cinema and watched a couple of movies with the kids – they had a ball!! :-))

The kids with the hats we bought them - absolutely made their day!!

And they 'went to town' with the zinc... :-)

Our group of enthusiastic fishermen on the pier...

And in the boat, ready to catch some lunch... :-)

Meanwhile the little kids loved the addition of the tubes to play with...

The fisherman returning... They were dropped-of at the beach

we were already at... :-)

And here they are with the 2 little fish they caught...

Hardly enough for 1 person, let alone all of us for lunch... :-))

Sari and Amh...

Helllooo there..... :-)

Kadeb taking a snooze... Never left those hats alone... :-)

Lunch at the beach shack...

We hired 2 cooks for the week ($15 a day...),

so the kids always ate well and had plenty to eat...

The Don Bosco vocational school campus...

Electrical Enginering classroom...

Automotive Engineering...

Mechanical Engineering...

The Communications classroom - sujbects include camera-work, audio and editing...

Ryan took-over as one of our tuk-tuk drivers...

The Top Cat Cinema was ours for the night... :-)

The Balcony... :-)) There are those hats again... :-))

Kruit, Bron and Soun enjoying drinks and snacks...

Big final day at the beach tomorrow!!!...

More Beach - and Seafood!!!..... :-)

2011-07-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

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Written by Ryan -

It's our second day here in Sihnoukville and having a great time so far!! In the morning, all of us headed to the beach where we had an awesome morning with the tall waves and various activities e.g. building sand castles and burying the kids under the sand. At lunchtime, all of us returned back to the school/hotel for lunch after a long, tiring morning.

At night, Aviv and Michelle had decided to take all the children out for dinner to a seafood restaurant. I have to say that the food was delicious - crab, prawns, lobster - all freshly cooked!!. There was 1 thing about dinner though that I couldn't understand, all the rubbish and left-over pieces of shell were simply thrown down on the ground... Anyway it was a very enjoyable evening!!

Having a great time!!

The kids heacded straight for the water when we arrived at the beach...

You wouldn't think this was only their second time at the beach... :-)

Bros and Gim...

Wohoo!!! :-)

Leak doing a back-flip in the surf...

Hard to believe yesterday was the first time he's seen the beach...

Kadeb with some of the younger kids...

Bros giving Theourn a sand-bath... :-)))))

Our sand castle had tunnels throught it to carry the water... ;-)

Seyha with his Angkor Wat work of art!! :-)

Hay built a pyramid...

And soun built a 'mini-me' sand castel... :-)

Ryan's contribution...

Songnam sculptures a turtle and a shark -

in the background he's working on a prawn!! ;-)

Our sand castle theme park...

Kedang having a great time...

Sanek and Samet and Srey-Mom...

Alex, Ryan, Steph and Bona chilling in the beach shack...

Leak having a 'titanic moment' on top of truck

heading back from the beach... :-))

Our fleet of tuk-tuks heading out for dinner... :-)

And arriving at dusk...

Happy, happy faces... :-)))

And the aftermath..... :-)

(Poor Ryan - no idea how he coped with this mess -

surprised he didn't offer to clean-up...

He makes his bed in the guest house every morning!!!!! :-))))

'til tomorrow... :-)

THE BEACH!!!!!......

2011-07-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

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Straight after breakfast we hopped on the large truck we've arranged to take all the kids to the beach... Keeping to yesterday's theme, THE TRUCK RAN OUT OF PETROL on the way....... :-))))) You gotta laugh..... We hopped off the truck and walked the last 1000 meters or so - nothing else was going to get in our way!!!

We stopped a couple of times on our waalk, so the kids could listen to the crashing waves get louder as we got closer... And when we finally go there, the kids' eyes and faces said it all - WOW!!!

They hit the water tentatively at first, and with full-enthusiasm within a few more minutes... The bigger kids were jumping waves in no time and the smaller ones were happy in the shallows...

The photos tell the story better than anything else... Enjoy...

Alex getting her hair done in the morning... :-))

Our truck heading to the beach (before it broke-down...) after a heavy downpour...

An overcast day, didn't dampen out spirits...

Pom-Sen on the right - a beach-bucket on his head, with goggles...

Ready for 'the landing'... :-)

And here we all are...

5 Aussies and our kids who are at the beach for the first time in their lives... :-)

Yippie!!!!!!!!

Mich with some of the kids - sorry 'bout the water on the lense... ;-)

Theourn chilling on the beach...

Set and Tah - Gim running in the background...

Sanak and Sari collecting seashells...

Amh with her bucket and spade...

Ryan and the kids burying Pom-Sen...

If we can't swim, no problem... We can float...

(For those of you worried about water-safety, we had

adults in the water at all times...)

The wind started picking-up by lunchtime (check-out the trees

in the background...), but the kids were having

too much fun to worry about that...

Alex and Leak...

Lunch at our beach-shack...

Playing pool at our beach-shack...

Heading back to the Guest House - very tired - and very happy... :-)))))

(Truck fixed...:-))

And more to come tomorrow... :-)))

Sihanoukville here we come!!!.... :-)))

2011-07-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

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Well, to say that the last 24 hours went as planned would be as far from the truth as can be... But as always, we made the best of the situation and had fun along the way...

The night before we left for Cambodia's beach-side township, Sihanoukville, we went with the local travel agent we were using to check-out the bus we booked. Instead of a new coach, with a toilet and TV screens, we saw battered old bombs, with a stench that just can't be described... :-&    Our travel agent found another bus company, so at 10pm we went with her to check their bus - which was newer, but still far from luxurious... We wanted to book a nice bus for the kids, as we'd be spending over 10 hours on it...

So after getting back to the hotel after 11pm, our day started with a 2am wake-up, for a 3am pick-up from our Guest House... Don't know 'bout you, but less than 3 hours sleep isn't our thing...  You can imagine the mood we were in when the bus turned-up 45 minutes late!!!.... That 45 minute delay was going to be a problem unless we made-up the time, as we had to arrive in Phnom Penh by 9.30-10am in order to make it to the Royal Palace before they close-off admissions at 11am... Anyway, while we were waiting, Somnang headed to the bakery to pick-up 100 breadrolls (cost - $7.50 - for 100 breadrolls... That's 7.5 cents per breadroll...) and when the bus arrived we headed to Bakong to pick-up the kids, who were waiting in front of the Bakong Temple. We arrived at 4.15 instead of 3.30 - only to find-out the kids were so excited that they couldn't sleep and have been waiting there since 2.30am.....

All on the bus, we turned-off the lights and slept until sunrise before stopping for breakfast... The bus was not moving fast enough to catch-up on the lost time, and before we knew it, turned off the main road - telling us that buses can't use the main road anymore... A little more digging and basically the driver decided to pocket the tolls by using the slower old road - which was partly sealed, and mostly unsealed with pot-holes the size of small cars... :-|

Well, then the bus broke-down... No, not kiding - the bus broke-down... :-|| We waited for an hour before another bus from Phnom Penh came to get us - fortunately the video was working and the kids didn't mind the wait... We got to Phnom Penh at 1pm, so the Palace was way off the cards... We headed for lunch by the Mekong River, took-over the entire restaurant and ordered the kids' food - but the restaurant RAN OUT OF RICE!!!!!!! AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! How does an Asian restaurant run out of rice?!?!?!? Welcome to Cambodia.... :-))))   Expect the unexpected - and deal with it...... After a lunch that took 1.5 hours (motorbikes dispatched to other restaurants to get more steamed rice...), we piled back on the slow replacement-bus and headed to Sihanoukville... A trip that should have taken no more than 5 hours, took over 6.5 - so we missed the sunset and arrived well after dark......

Settling on pizzas for dinner, we headed to the nearest pizza shop and ordered 19 pizzas... After 15 minutes, no pizzas... After 20 minutes, no pizzas. 25 minutes, still nothing... After half an hour, we headed to the kitchen... to find 2 staff members (that's the entire restaurant crew...), feverishly making our pizzas - in an oven that could only bake 4 PIZZAS AT A TIME!!!!..... At 15 minutes per batch....... Done the maths yet?? Our 19 pizzas took over an hour and a quarter to make......

So, a day that was completely off the scale in terms of challenging us to rise above the unexpected...

We're out in the street... At 3am... Waiting for our bus... :-)

The kids lining-up in their teams - Smart Kids, Dragons, Dolphins,

Angles and Party Animals - before boarding the bus...

Breakfast at a roadside stop - the breadrolls we bought at 3am were

still warm - we also had hard-boiled eggs and bananas... A well-balanced meal... :-))

Glee, Rio and a couple of other movies kept us entertained... :-)

Our bus driver under the bus - in 40 degrees,

on the scorthcing road, trying to fix our bus...

Steph and Alex thought they'd try pushing the bus to Phnom Penh... :-))

Our 'Priscilla Queen Of The Desert' moment...

Steph, Alex and Ryan performing 'I Will Survive'... :-)))))

(Check-out the road and pot-holes...)

The Mekong River promenade in Phnom Penh...

Lunch in Phnom Penh before hopping back on the bus for the rest of the trip... :-)

Glad tomorrow's a new day... :-))))

Pancake Day and Hay's Birthday!!

2011-07-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

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Written by Alex -

Today was Hay's 16th birthday and to celebrate we surprised him at the orphanage in the morning with an embarassing blue party hat!! :-)) The children got themselves into groups and made birthday cards for him.

As a special birthday treat, today was also Pancake Day!! We bought 2 camp-stoves in the market ($10.50 each...), as well as the frying-pans and pancake mix. Steph taught the English words the kids had to learn to make the pancakes, I cut-up the bananas, Aviv made the mix, Mich taught the kids how to flip - and Ryan was taking photos... The pancakes were topped with bananas, honey and chocolate - needless to say, all 100+ pancakes were gone...

We came back to Siem Reap and went to visit Lidia who runs an orphanage/shelter called Together for Cambodia. We spent some time there talking with some of the kids and having a look around. After visiting Lidia we made our way to see Susan who runs Honour Village Cambodia, a school and orphanage out of Siem Reap. Both these ladies are absolutely inspirational!! You can google their organizations...

We didn't have much time to teach at the school this afternoon so we went to the orphanage for about an hour and just "hung out" with the kids before they had dinner.

First we learned the English words we needed.. Pancake mix, water, frying-pan......

Alex and the kids cutting-up the bananas for our pancakes...

Mich teaching a 'making pancakes 101' class...

And the students are ready to take over... :-)

Hay was very moved by our class birthday party for him -

couldn't stop cupping his hands in appreciation...

And cue the silly-string!!!!! :-))))

The kids tucking into their pancakes...

And of course there's plenty for seconds, and thirds..... :-)

Another big day is planned for tomorrow... We are going to try and get as much sleep as possible tonight as tomorrow we will be having very little sleep - up at 2.00am Saturday morning to venture off for Sihanoukville... Via Phnom Penh...

YYYAAAAAYYY!!! It's tie-dye day!!! :-)))

2011-07-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

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Written by Alex -

This morning at the orphanage we started-off looking at colours. We then gave the children a list of things outside of the orphanage which they had to run and find. The kids played UNO with Steph, followed by a game of basketball.

In preparation for the Sihanoukville trip next week, we made tie-dye t-shirts and bandanas.

We showed the kids how to tie the t-shirts/singlets and the bandanas and then let the kids dip them into the dye.
While our 'works of art' were drying, we had a meeting with all of the children explaining how Sihanoukville is going to run (very organized - with team leaders, assistant leaders and adults, so we can all have fun, and be safe) - they were shocked when they heard we would be leaving Bakong at 3.30 in the morning!! :-))))

This afternoon we took Ryan to Angkor Wat and watched the sunset with a few of the older boys from the orphanage. We were lucky enough to have a nun bless another bracelet on us. These bracelets will forever bring us luck.

We ended the night in Siem Reap with a birthday dinner for Hay and some of the boys.

Every child got a t-shirt/singlet and a bandana...

And went to town putting rubber-bands into the material...

See?? Like this...

And this... :-))

(That's Alex, another volnuteer from Australia who was helping us)

Standing-room only as we all watched the water turn to colour.... ;-)

Steph demonstrating how to dye the clothes...

And then it was on for young and old... :-))

We had 6 'dipping stations' for our 6 different dye colours...

Stay-tuned for the fashion parade in Sihanoukville... ;-)

The Sihanoukville briefing...

Angkor Wat!! :-)

Such posers... :-))

The kids receiving their red braceletts and blessings...

And Alex getting hers...

Oh, what a feeling!!! :-)))

OK, just one more photo with this group of monks... At sunset...

In one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...

With our kids in Cambodia...

How sureal...

:-)

Hay's birthday dinner in Siem Reap -

even the chef came-by to say hello (back right corner of the table...)

Goodnight!!

Tomorrow is Hay's 16th birthday and we will celebrate with Pancake Day at the orphanage!! :-))

The Human Body at the orphanage in the morning - and back at School in the afternoon...

2011-07-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

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Written by Alex -
Mr K, our tuk-tuk driver, picked us up at 7.45 this morning. On our way to the orphanage we stopped at the local market and picked up 2 watermelons and a stalk of bananas to take with us.

When we arrived we were happily greeted by all of the children. Today was all about the human body. We started by naming the parts of the body and then played "Steph says" followed by pictionary using the body parts.

The children were then placed into small groups and given large pieces of butchers'-paper which they then traced around the body of one of the kids. The parts of the body were then named and decorated.

We taught in the school this afternoon, including classes on verbs and nouns, the days of the week and the months of the year. Teacher Salas' 5pm class was as big as always - over 65 kids!! 3-4 to a desk and a dozen on the floor.....

On the way back to the guest house we stopped by the orphanage to say goodnight to the kids.

Kedang being used as the 'Human Body Model'... :-)

As was Seht...

Until he became the 'Make-Up Model'... :-))

Cheah naming his team's body parts

The neat and tidy library at school - WOW!!... :-)

Ryan, Steph and Alex teaching about verbs and nouns...

The over-crowded 5pm class learning about the days of the week

and the months of the year...

Keen to learn - aren't they???... :-)) Of course making classes fun does help...

We treated ourselves to a foot-massage after a 'long day at the office'... :-)

Another busy day comes to an end - and another great day coming-up tomorrow... :-)

Aussie Rules and pronounciation...

2011-07-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

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Written by Ryan -

This is my second time in Cambodia and loving every minute of it!! It's really enjoyable teaching the kids English as well as playing with them. Seeing their smiling faces everyday brightens up my day.

This morning at the orphanage, there was a volunteer called Alex who teaches indigenous children in central-Australia. We got the Cambodian kids to write letters to his children back in Australia, just a little bit about their lives.

After the children had completed their letters and seen photos of the indigenous kids, we taught them how to play "Aussie Rules Football". They really liked kicking the ball around and hand-balling!!!

After a fun but very hot morning, Aviv, Michelle, Steph, Alex and I went to the school to teach the children pronounciation... This was a great challenge because they struggled to pronounce the sounds of letters like f, v and w...

So far, I think Cambodia is amazing!!!

Ryan, Steph and Alex waiting to teach a class at the school...

It hasn't rained for a couple of days - throwing cold water on

them tends to cool things down... :-))))

And get some great laughs...

Getting the kids to pronounce words correctly can be quite

a challenge - but we always make it fun... ;-)

Our lips, tongue and teeth determine the right pronounciation...

We take it for-granted that we know to put our top teeth on

our bottom lip and say 'V'... Or open our mouth, loosen

our lips and say 'we'... :-)))

We also worked on pronounciation in the XXL 5pm class... :))

Ryan and Bona going through the alphabet and teaching the kids

the right pronounciation of every letter...

Steph took her class on 'colours'

After learning the words, some word-games reinforce the learning...

Hangman is a favorite...

Fun in the tuk-tuk on the way back to Siem Reap...

Say cheese.... :-)

And back to the fun and games....... :-)))

Dinner with our friend Lidia, who runs a fantastic

orphanage/shelter called Together For Cambodia

Big day tomorrow - we are going to tie-dye t-shirts, singlets and bandanas!!

It's SPORTS DAY!! :-)))

2011-07-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

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Had a great day with the kids today... We split the kids in the orphanage into 4 groups and played until the heat zapped the energy out of us... Then it was time for some bananas and watermelon...

Ryan at 'Banana Alley' at the New Market on the way

to the orphanage in the morning...We always stop

on our way to pick-up some fresh fruit for the kids...

First race of the day... the 'carry your buddy across the water' race...

The 'human-wheelbarrow' race...

A twist on the egg-and-spoon race... using bananas... :-))

Speed is one thing, but the winning team was the one with most

water in their cup at the end of the race... ;-)

Now it's getting tricky... When the water spills you take a shower... :-)))

The perfect race for a hot day...

Doesn't take much to make sports-day fun...

Especially when we tossed a bucket of water on the kids

as the grand-finale... :-)))))))

This poor dog at the orphanage copped a spray

of snake venom. Lucky to survive, he lost his fur and now keeps

in-doors for most of the day... He comes out whenever we arrive -

it's tucker time!!

Tomorrow we'll be learing about Parts of The Body and teaching at the school in the afternoon... :-)

Wall-decor stickers and CARNIVAL!!...

2011-07-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Being the wet season, there are lots of bugs around and many of the kids had open wounds which we cleaned and dressed for them. We'll probably keep changing the dressings over the next week, so hopefully most will heal before we get to the sand and salt-water...

In the late afternoon we all headed to Siem Reap to have dinner at a restaurant - over 50 of us... The kids ate their fill before we headed to the carnival and some rides... A great night was had by all!! :-)

The kids took to decorating their rooms with great zeal...

Alex is on-hand to lend a hand...

As is Steph...

On for young and old... "Like this?"...

Yip, as simple as that... :-)

The kids in their best clothes getting ready to leave the

orphanage on the way to dinner and the carnival...

The family at a Khmer restaurant... Over 40 kids...

A table as long as the camera can capture... :-)

Ryan on the back of Theavy's motorbike heading to

the carnival

Alex and Steph with some of the boys on the tuk-tuk...

And the kids piling-off the truck at the carnival...

The little kids headed straight to the jumping-castle...

And the big kids to the dodgem cars...

Sehn and Pom-Senh, Seyha and Ryan - on the grid...

Veasna and Theurn - not watching where they're going...

Or are they... ;-)

In the cage ready for a spin.....

Here we go.......

Interesting phenomenon - the faster the wheel spun,

the louder the screams...... :-))))

The little kids had dodgem cars too...

And a train...

But not as big and fast as the big kids' train....

Just check-out the smiles..... :-)))))

Actually we couldn't get them off.....

Of-course everyone got a turn...

And we negotiated a 10 minute ride for them.... :-)

The kids that weren't on the ride had just as much fun!!

The kids on the way back to the orphanage -

another fun day in their memory banks... ;-)

Tomorrow is Sports Day......

July 2011 Back in Cambodia!!

2011-07-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

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It's great to be back - and this time in addition to Steph and Alex, Mich and I are joined by Ryan - a son of family friends, and a friend of Steph's from school!!

We'll be here for 2 weeks - the first week we'll be volunteering at the school and orphanage, and in the second week we'll be taking the kids from the orphanage to Sihanoukville - Cambodia's beach-side township, about a 10 hour bus ride away... None of the kids have ever been to the beach - never felt the sand between their toes, hear the crashing of the waves, or see the endless blue sea meet the sky on the horizon... :-)

Savong and many of the kids came to pick us up at the airport, which was fantastic!! It was like a big family reunion - and a great introduction for Ryan... After dropping-off our bags at the guest house, we took the kids to Lucky Burger for lunch - in fact we gave them the choice... Khmer lunch or Lucky Burgers... The burgers won by a unanimous vote...

After lunch we headed to Savong's new orphanage, which he's buliding closer to Siem Reap, so the older kids can come to town for the last few years of High School. We then headed to the orphanage to meet the rest of the kids...

The happy reunion at the airport...

Alex and Ryan heading-off for lunch with the kids...

The 'family' is back together at the orphanage... That stalk of 96
bananas (a stalk always has 4 'hands' of 24 bananas) cost $2.50 ;-)

Somnang's tuk-tuk had a flat tyre on the way to the orphanage...

Fortunately there was a 'cafe' near-by so we dropped-in for some

watermelon while we waited for Mr. K to come over with his tuk-tuk... :-)

We'll be back with more tomorrow - sticker-day for the kids' bedrooms and carnival at night!! :-))

All good things must come to an end... :-(

2010-10-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

We started at the orphanage - and sang the kids' favorite song... Heal The World....... We then gave out the photos we took of each of the kids and they made photo cards.... Had a couple of hours to play some games before it was time to say goodbye.....

Heal The World......

As you can see, a year on, the kids are still fully-engaged with this song.....

Selecting photos for the photo cards

And the kids got to make their own photo albums as well...

:-)

Playing cat and mouse...

The basketball court at the orphanage coming together!!!! Concrete will be done next week....

A very tearful farewell at the orphanage...

Many of the kids wrote us some magnificent notes...

Time to wipe away the tears... we will be back.....

Some of the kids came to see us off at the airport :-(

Not the happiest bunch, but we plan to return in January....... ;-)

THANK YOU for joining us on this trip - and thank you to those of you who have been so generous in fundraising and donating!! Hopefully through this blog you have seen the joy and material change we have all brought to our kids in Cambodia. If there is one common theme in the many notes we have received from the kids, it's this - "please don't forget us"..... We won't, and we hope you won't....

Until next time,

Steph, Alex, Mich and Aviv

Ice-shave Drinks Day!!

2010-10-05T01:53:00.000-07:00

We started at the orphanage with Thank You cards to our UR1 sponsors and Warner Bros and UR1 Teams... We then got down to the serious business of teaching the kids key words in making ice-shavers to make a cool drink on a warm day......

Mich with the new TV gifted to the orphanage by the UR1 Team - THANK YOU!! :-)

Giant Thank You card for the Warner Bros Team for the new clothes!!

And another for the UR1 Team for the Basketball Courts for the school and orphanage, and the new TV!!

Alex writing Thank You cards for the UR1 sponsors - thank you Bec, Maria, Mary and Tony, Narelle and Paul, Megan and Jodie and the Customer Care Team!!

Am with Alex

Nothing like a giant hand-made card...

Thank you Warner Bros!!

And thank you UR1 Team!!

It was then time to get cool......

Didn't take the kids long to get going...

And our Tuk-Tuk drivers were on-hand to help as always...

Cheers!!! :)

Our Tuk-Tuk driver, Songnam, enjoying a shaved-ice drink...

Yip, we can make more...

And more...

Ratana

Steph pouring the cordial - the kids could choose the flavor - mango, berry, orange or lime... :)

Bron

Chea

Srey Mom

Set

By the time we got to the school, the afternoon thunderstorm had hit and the quadrangle was a small lake...

First we learnt the key Ice-Shaving words (on the board), and then the kids got to shave their own ice and make their own drinks!!

Just like this... :)

Every class got in on the act...

As did the kids waiting to get into classes...

I think the kids liked our theme today.....

Salas, a teacher (in white shirt) started it...... Putting an ice-block down Steph's back......

And then it was on......

Here we go Salas....

See this big puddle?????....... :))))))

All in jest of course... Check-out the kids in the background...

Of course we had some other ice-blocks left, so the kids smashed them on the floor....

And it was on..... Down everybody's backs.....

:-))))

Steph in the thick of it...

As is Alex...

Ice-wars became mud-wars...

And is that another ice-block Alex is holding up???....

Nope, not anymore...... :)))

Interesting thing - after mucking around for some time, the kids came up to Steph and Alex and shook their hands saying "Friends, OK?" - in other words, we really loved playing with you and although we almost killed each other, no malice intended...... Great gesture!!

Back tomorrow for our last day!!!

Tie-Dye Day!! Brought to you by our sponsors - Kerryn, Tayla, Dean and Daniella...

2010-10-04T02:13:00.000-07:00

I'll let the pictures do the talking - needles to say, the kids have never seen clothes-colouring, tie-dye, let alone make their very own T-shirts... :-)

When we added the dye to the water, the kids all gasped - WOW, the water changed colour just like that!!

Mixing the dyes

The 'production line'...

OK, time to get to business...

... with style...

Look at those colours...

A hive of activity...

Tie-dye T-shirts...

... everywhere...

Now, there's a happy face... :))

Hanging out to dry...

The Thank You poster the kids made...

Wearing our new tie-dye T-shirts - thank you Kerryn, Tayla, Dean and Daniella!!!

We've got a way to keep cool tomorrow....... :))

Another big day ahead...

2010-10-03T01:15:00.000-07:00

Boy, we had a big day ahead of us today...

First we headed to the New Market to buy some white T-shirts and and large plastic tubs - tomorrow we'll be making tie-dye T-shirts with the kids!! The money for the tie-dye project was raised and donated by 4 Year 6 students at Mt. Scopus College in Melbourne, Australia - a HUGE THANK YOU to Kerryn, Tayla, Dean and Daniella!! It's just GREAT to see kids who have heard about our project from Steph get engaged and raise money for us to take over and help bring joy to our Cambodian kids' lives!!

After the market we went on to Chom Rong's university - Chom Rong was one of the orphans at the orphanage and last year we bought him a motor bike so he could attend the better urban High School in Siem Reap. He did very well in Grade 12, so this year we're sponsoring him to go to university - he's studying Law at Angkor University!! These kids are bright, they are just extremely poor - it's such a pleasure to be able to help them be the best they can be and break the poverty cycle!!

After Uni it was off to school, and the orphanage for some BIG surprises.....

The New Market - basically the shopping centre... The stalls in the market sell everything from fresh produce and meat to housewares, hardware, jewellery and clothing...

The clothing stalls - we were spoilt for choice, but we only wanted to buy white T-shirts... :)

Thanks Kerryn, Tayla, Dean and Daniella!!

Chom Rong bought some materials to make the new clothes he needs for University

And with the money the Team at UR1 raised, we bought a new TV for the orphanage - thanks UR1 Team!!

Our proud Law Student!!

With Chom Rong in his classroom

And the library... Doesn't he look so proud??... :))

Back at school - Alex always making it fun

Another packed class...

The Japanese volunteer and a couple of the students in a Kimono

A local game the kids play - they spring into the air to jump clear of the the elastic - check-out the height!!!

And the BIG surprise at the orphanage... We had some gifts from the kids sponsors at UR1, as well as NEW CLOTHES for EVERYONE, thanks to Warner Bros in Melbourne!!

Chea, with the gift from Mary and Tony

Set with the gift from Lea, Linda, Allison, Megan, Jeanette and Julie

Srey Neir with the gift from Mary and Tony

Am receiving her gift from Narelle and Paul

No words needed here.......

Ratana modeling his new Batman bathers...

Leak

Bros

Srey Mom

Theourn

Kadang

Mahn

KimSun

Theourn

Sehn

Kadeb

Soon

THANK YOU WARNER BROS!!!!!

And then it was time to PARTY!!

Getting the fire started...

We stayed up-wind...

:)))

Srey Neir

Marshmellows all 'round...

PARTY time...

We didn't need much to have fun... ;-)

Alex, Steph and Chom Rong continued the party on their Tuk-Tuk on the way back...

Told you it was going to be a BIG DAY... :))

Back with more tomorrow... :-)

Monday and Tuesday... Baby Animals, Pronouns and Basketball... :))

2010-09-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

How many people does it take to change a tyre on a Tuk-Tuk??

3 of course... One to change the tyre (note the jack is a paver...) and 2 Tuk-Tuk drivers to supervise..... :)

Back at to the school and orphanage - the kids were still raving about their Saturday night at the 'night club'... :)

We taught about 'baby animal' at the orphanage... We wrote the name of the animal on the board and the kids had to tell us the name of the animal's baby... So logically, following 'piglet' for the baby pig, we were offered 'buffalet' for the baby buffalo... :))

We then played games to reinforce the names of the baby animals and winners got prizes - little treats... Of course everyone got a treat - we're trying to fatten them up after-all... :))

In the afternoon, Steph and Alex taught at the school - ready for this?... They taught about 'subject and object pronouns'... Their English teachers would have been very proud!!... :))

And check-out the photos of the UR1 BASKETBALL COURT below!!!...

The orphanage complex - 3 classrooms and kitchen/meals area on the left - the back block are the bedrooms and medical centre

The medical centre offers free medical advice to the local villagers

Monday is washing day... Actually, in Cambodia, every day is washing day... ;-)

Is a baby buffalo a 'buffalet'?... :))

Speaking of baby animals, this puppy was quite at home in our classroom... :)

The kids always diligently copy everything from the board into their notebook

Who's got a treat??...

It's fish for lunch today...

Here comes the 'school bus' from the local government school...

Monks on our way between the orphanage and school in the afternoon

Don't ask me how, but everyone always finds their shoes... :)

Subjective and objective pronouns.... :-|

Alex and Steph in class

Mich showing our Cambodia AV to the kids in front of the library... And another dog having a sleep... :)

Steph and Alex putting the 'finishing touches' to the new basketball court... ;-)

Thanks to the FANTASTIC fundraising efforts by the UR1 team, we built this basketball court at the school!! This is the very first game on the court - and Alex was right in the thick of things...

GO ALEX !!!!

Just missed... :))

Alex's team won 10-7... Having said that... The rules are that there are no rules... Tackle whenever and wherever, run with the ball if you must - and all baskets are worth 1 point.....

Steph grabbing an afternoon snooze between lessons... :-)

Both girls 'crashed' on the way back... The long days take a lot out of us... ;-)

Songnam, our Tuk-Tuk driver, brought us to meet his family...

That's it for today - stay tunes for our last 3 days - LOTS of activities planned.... Of course......

Weekend Excursions...

2010-09-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

IMPORTANT NOTE - Some of you have emailed us saying you can't leave a comment; to leave a comment simply scroll to the bottom of this blog entry and click on 'comments'... :))

On past visits we took all the kids from the orphanage on day-trips for the weekends - we've been with them to Angkor Wat, the Floating Village, shopping for clothes at the Market area and to the waterfalls in Koulen Monutain. This time we thought we'd take them to the Carnival area outside Siem Reap at night time - to see the bright lights, go on some rides, play some games, win some prizes and eat some local versions of junk-food... :)

As it turned-out, the sunny, warm and humid day turned into a tropical thunderstorm by the time we arrived at the Carnival... You know the ones - a spectacular lighting show, booming thunder and raindrops the size of marbles... But we knew that if something isn't meant to happen, something else will take its place... And so it was that we switched from the Carnival to taking all 30 kids from the orphanage to a night at the Karaoke... :)) They were VERY excited - they have never been to the Karaoke before... We arranged our own private room, drinks and snack, disco lighting, loud music, a couple of microphones - and got the party started!!

Our private Karaoke room, 2 screens and pool table of course...

Didn't take long to get into it... :)

And first to the microphone was Hi...

Followed by Thourn... :))

We invited our Tuk-Tuk drivers to join us with their families - this is Songnam - thank you Ed and the team at Warner Bros. for the new outfits!! ;-)

Mr. K, our other Tuk-Tuk driver with his daughter - and her new outfit!!

It was on for young and old...

Mich with some of the girls

And Steph with the boys... and girls... :))

Not sure if this was Dancing Queen or Heal the World... :)))

The kids had a great time...

Since we only had 2 microphones... some of the kids resorted to 'air-mikes'...

Or 'can-mikes'... :))

One of the volunteer we asked to join us - we had 2 from Malaysia, one from Spain and one from Belgium...

And we sang the night away...

The kids of course wore their best outfits (they each only have 1 good outfit...) - don't they look smart???

This is Kedang...

Mich with Kimsun

Bron and Sari

Mahn and Thourn

Nuon

Sohm

Kuy

Kedang and Chea

Sopheak and Kimhey - 2 of the teachers

Ratana having a boogie

The happy Karaoke crowd...

Ratanta out of steam... But those drinks are his, so hands-off... :)))

On Sunday, we took the kids to the public pool in Siem Reap - they have never been to a swimming pool before....... As you can see, it didn't take them long to get comfortable - and we had drinks in the pool-bar before going out for lunch as one big happy family......

First we had to evict the snake that took-up residence in the pool...

Not as simple as it looks... :))

But John, the pool owner, got him... ;-)

And here come the kids...

The calm before the storm

And the storm...

The water-guns we brought with us were popular of course...

We had a race... That's Alex third from the left....

And the winners are... Well, not Alex - she was 'drowned' by her fellow competitors half way through... :))

And then we opened the pool-bar...

:-)

Drinks and fun for all...

Cheers...

Nuon helping me... Now, I know what you're thinking, but these kids actually get out of the pool when they need to go... :)))

Our family at lunch

We're all here... Just waiting for the food...

Back to the classrooms tomorrow for our final week.... Stay tuned for more......

Wednesday and Thursday... Dress-ups, Colours and Grammar...

2010-09-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

We started Wednesday with dress-ups we brought with us - sunglasses, colour hair extensions, hair clips, bangles - and of course nail-polish!! What great ways to learn new English words - and reinforce the names of the colours!! The nail-polish was a HIT - and not only with the girls... The boys all got into it - painting one nail, or even their toes... :))

Yip, we all got into it... :))

Sunnies all 'round...

Nail-polish for young and old...

As you can see, the boys got right into it - with Alex right behind them... :)

And the Playdough was a big success again - this time we had more than 20 colours to learn!! ;-)

Sen - being MR. C O O L ...

Guess what the kids had for lunch today??

Frogs!! Yip, all these little pieces of meat are chopped-up frogs...

Eat-your-heart out French restauranteurs!!

The frogs were to be wok-fried with veggies... Look-out Master Chef... :))

At the school in the afternoon the girls continued to teach colours and played 'colour bingo' to reinforce the colours' names... And Mich taught grammar!! Adjectives to be specific... Like turning the sentence 'the boy rode his bike' into an adjective-ridden sentence like 'the tall, handsome, clever boy rode his new, black, expensive bike'... The kids actually came-up with this sentence... :))

Colours class at school

Mich teaching grammar...

And these kids actually like learning grammar!!! :))

In the breaks we taught the kids to play scrabble... As you can see, we had quite a crowd - and we had 2 boards going at a time...

The 5-6pm class... OVER 70 KIDS!! 4 to a desk and STANDING around the teacher's desk!!!

B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his name... The kids LOVE this song... And school... ;-)

Our basketball boards getting put together...

On Thursday at the orphanage we combined the colours in English with Japanese... We included the Japanese volunteers in our class and learnt all the colours in both languages!! Did you know that 'pink' in Japanese is 'pinku' and 'orange' is 'orangie'?? No, it stops there... 'black' is not 'blacku' and 'white' is not 'whitie'... :))

Iro is Colours in Japanese...

With our Japanese volunteers looking on...

Iro, iro everywhere... ;-)

The kids at the orphanage with the Japanese volunteers and us

Songnam and Mr. K, our tuk-tuk drivers, assembling the ice-shaving machines we brought with us...

Mun modeling the new school shirt the sewing class just made for him...

Our basketball court is taking shape...

And is being 'test-run'...

Steph showing the kids how to stick on the Australian flag tattoos we brought with us...

Alex and Steph on the way home after a long day... Letting-off some steam - singing and dancing in the tuk-tuk... Who needs a radio when you have 2 teenage passengers?!?!?...

Our fellow road-users certainly appreciated the free entertainment... :)))

Well, that's it for another day... The weekend's coming-up - stay tuned for our field-trip... ;-)

Back in Cambodia for our 3rd trip!!

2010-09-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's only been 8 months since we were here last... The kids have grown, the orphanage has an additional classroom and medical center, and the school is bursting with 600 students...

We arrived late Monday afternoon and Steph and Alex were desperate to see the kids, so we took a van from the airport to the guest house to drop-off our luggage first... We checked-in 8 bags and over 150kg... Thanks to Karl, Paulette and Singapore Airlines for arranging to carry our access luggage for free!! :)

As we drove into the guest house, there were Songnam and Mr. K, our tuk-tuk drivers from our last trip... Just happen to be there... :)

Some of the kids from the orphanage came with Savong, on the left, to meet us when we arrived at the guest house

Like seeing your family again... :)

We dropped-off our bags and headed to the orphanage for a happy reunion!!

It was already dark by the time we arrived at the orphanage on Monday night...

Look at these smiles... :)))

With the new school year (which started here in September), the school's timetable has changed and classes are now only running from 1-7pm, so we headed tot the orphanage for the morning...

The orphanage has had the benefit of LOTS of volunteers from all over the world - just on our first day we met Jen from Ireland, as well as volunteers from the UK, Malaysia and Japan...

The fish pond (well, we won't be eating these fish...) has been a commercial success - funded by donors from the Canada, the US and Australia of course - thanks to the UR1 team!! :)

The sewing classroom - another great success!! This week the students are learning to make shirts - for practice, they are making school shirts for the kids at the orphanage... ;-)

The medical centre at the orphanage also serves the local community, with a doctor visiting twice a week

San and Jackie from Malaysia with the kids at the orphanage - and the printer they have donated!! Thanks San and Jackie!!

Steph, Alex, San and Jackie with Mr. K at the 'petrol station'...

We spent the afternoon at the school - getting reacquainted with the kids and wondering how they live here in the summer... 35+ degrees and humidity from morning to night... It makes us feel good to see the locals also perspire from time-to-time... :)

The kids still love playing bingo...

And the winners got clip-on koalas and icy-poles!! :)

Some familiar faces?? And still those smiles.......

Duncan Stuart, one of the school's founders, major contributors and administrator celebrated his birthday on Tuesday (Duncan lives in Auckland, New Zealand) - we rang Duncan and sang him happy birthday - and played Hangman in his honor!! :)))

Happy Birthday Duncan!! :)))

Many of us can sit ON a printer box...

But how many can fit IN the box??? Of course Kedang can... :)

The girls taking one of the afternoon classes...

On the way back to the guest house, we stopped at the orphanage to say goodnight...

The kids were just finishing dinner...

And always have time to play...

You may recall that Savet, Savong's older brother, passed away on our last trip to Cambodia. This is Savet's wife and 5 month old son - she is now our 'resident mum' at the orphanage.

That's it for our first full day - back tomorrow with more... :)

THANK YOU for sharing our journey...

2010-02-02T03:39:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all those who have contributed – both financially and with your words of encouragement!!

We’ve been able to share so much more with your help and generosity... A special thanks to...

Alan and John for donating the laptops for the school!!

Nili and Friends for the watertank for the orphanage!!

The UR1 Team for helping set-up the chicken and fish farm at the orphange!!

NCJW for the new clothes for all the kids at the orphanage!!

OfficeWorks for the Sports Day ribbons at the school!!

Mary and Tony for sponsoring one of the kids at the orphanage!!

Bec and Chris for sponsoring one of the kids at the orphanage!!

The UR1 Customer Care team for sponsoring on of the kids at the orphanage!!

And if you’d like to share some our experience hands-on, here are some useful links –

* Savong’s School can be found at http://www.savong.com/

* Savong recommends staying at Sor Phoun Villa, http://www.sorphounvilla.com/

* Our Guest House, Mekong Angkor Palace, website is http://www.mekongangkorpalaces.com/

* On-line Cambodia Visa application is quick and saves standing in lines on arrival... www.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx

* Our regular Tuk-Tuk driver, Songnam, speaks a very good English and is very reliable – his mobile phone number is +855-17-296-269

* In Cambodia, we bought pre-paid SIM cards for our mobile phones – calls overseas are 9-15 cents per minute and in-coming calls are free. The company we found with the best/most consistent coverage is MetFone – prepaid SIM cards can be found at any of the numerous phone-shop-fronts or food/drink vendors. The cards can also be topped-up during your stay.

* Using a local travel agent for flights/buses within Cambodia is inexpensive and keeps the money 'local' - a reliable travel agent we used is Easy & Fast Air Ticket - sinabusiness@gmail.com or sinabusiness@yahoo.com ; +855-63-767-767, +855-765-168, +855-92-555-518, +855-17-555-518

Other than that, feel free to drop a note to Steph at stephi_rox@hotmail.com or Aviv at avivp@ur1.com

We’ll be back in Cambodia – with another blog – in September 2010!! :))

Steph with Savong...

Savong’s older brother, Savet, passed away yesterday – the day of our party...

2010-01-31T00:20:00.000-08:00

At about 8pm last night Savong took me aside and told me he had to leave soon – I immediately asked him how his brother was (I knew he was gravely ill with cancer, at the age of 34). Savong told me that Savet passed away at his parents’ house at 2pm, while we were receiving the blessings from the monks...
I asked Savong why he went ahead with the party and how could he mask his loss all night – he simply replied that he was “happy on the outside and sad on the inside”... Buddhism’s approach to life and death is unique – we’re living our current life based on our past lives and the lessons we still need to learn – karma. Savet’s life was his learning and his passing-on was part of the cycle of reincarnation that is central to Buddhism.

Savong slipped away after 9 and it was only after 10 that some of us noticed he left... Our beautiful party was tinged with sadness...

On Friday morning Savong rang me and invited us to his parents’ house to pay our respects. We quickly did our homework and found out that we could wear black or white and should bring with us some cans of soft drinks and money for a collection.

On arrival, Savong met us warmly and we could see that the bereavement process in Buddhism was nothing like the one we know in Judaism or Christianity... There were kids running around, everyone was not up-beat, but certainly not wallowing in sorrow... A marquee was set-up in the street in front of the house and the music was blaring, telling all around that there was a death in this house... All visitors deposited some money at the entrance, to cover the cost of the food, which was being prepared at the back of the house... There were 2 huge bowls of soup and vegetables on the boil and all guests were offered rice and meat and soup and vegetables... And the soft drinks all guests brought along... The marquee was to host all the visitors partaking in the food being offered by the family...

Savong's uncle announcing the guests and Savong's mother on the right - the marquee in the background

We paid our respects by lighting incense in-front of the coffin containing Savet’s body, which was simply placed in the living area of the house – not hidden in some other room or some other premises... A group of nuns and monks were about to have some food and Savong’s father asked that they bless us... Like I said, nothing like any funeral we have been to...

Lighting incense as a sign of respect at Savong's parents' house

Savong took this photo - Savet's casket is right beneath the camera, in the center of the house

With the nuns and monks at Savong's parents' house - that's Savong's father behind Michelle

Savet at the orphange when we visited in August last year...

We spent a couple of hours at Savong’s parents’ home, speaking with Savong and his siblings. We learnt that Savong’s brothers have shaved their heads as a sign of bereavement and that one of them will live as a monk in the Pagoda for the next week. Savet’s body will be cremated at the Pagoda tomorrow and the family will continue to receive visitors for another 2 days after that.

All-in-all, it was a sombre, but not depressing, process – much like accepting life as it’s meant to be, not wishing for something that isn’t...

It was a sad note on which to end our trip, but also an uplifting one – our Cambodian brothers and sisters, who have so little, truly have so much... Our western society is so focused on possessions (houses, cars, clothes...) that we are often devoid of spirit – the spirit that the Khmer take for granted as they journey through their lives...

In our final blog in the coming days we’ll say some thank you’s’ and list some useful links...

Thursday, our last full day – PARTY TIME!!

2010-01-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

I told Savong we wanted have a party for our last night and he suggested we combine it with Sunna’s birthday (Aneed and Savong’s youngest daughter). When I suggested a party, I was thinking of something small for the kids – but when Savong hopped on the bandwagon, what we got was a CAMBODIAN PARTY!!

The girls in the Tuk-Tuk with 40 baloons for decorating the marquee...

Preparations started in the morning, with the marquee being erected at the orphanage – with seating for 100 guests... We decorated with leafy branches (fresh from the forest...) and balloons and the ‘caterer’ had crew of ladies working on the 7 course (!!) meal, including a calf on the spit...

Calf on the spit and chickens ready to drop into the stir-fry...

The 'caterers' at work...

The marquee at the orphanage - on the left is s temporary generator and on the right are huge amplifiers that BOOMED Khmer songs all night...

Setting-up the marquee... :)

The boys washing the dishes before the party - this job would have been almost impossible without the new water tank... As you can see, everyone's thoroughly saturated... :))

At about 2pm a group of monks were invited to come and bless Sunna and the kids at the orphanage...

The monks blessing the orphanage and Sunna for her birthday...

We're all cupping our hands in gratitude... :)

Mich with the stir-fry... Now THAT'S a wok!!! Would be handy back home for large family dinners... :))

Putting the final touches on the marquee...

The guests started arriving at 4pm and the party was in full swing by 6pm... We arranged for a balloon vendor to come-by and each of the kids (and surprisingly many of the adults...) got balloons – they were a BIG HIT...

After the 7 courses were consumed, we moved on to the ‘dance-floor’... And we danced, and danced, and danced... With the glow-in-the-dark sticks we brought from Australia, and the sparklers and marshmallows toasting, this was a very memorable way to finish-off our month in Cambodia...

Our ballon-vendor was a hit - with balloons and masks for everyone... :)

Jess, Alex and Steph with our 'orphanage mother' and some of the boys...

We had over 120 guests... :)

Smiles all 'round... :)

The girls with Chom Rong...

With Savong, Mich, Aneed and Sunna... :)

Party, Party, Party!! We learnt some new moves and got right into it!!

Our sparklers were a HIT!!

:))

Mask and glow-stick in one hand and a sparkler in the other... :))

We danced the night away - with our tuk-tuk drivers (Songnam in the blue shirt, Mr. K in the pink shirt), Chom Rong and Steph in the front, Kadeb, Jess and Mich in the back... :))

And then we toasted marshmallows...

Y U M !!

Kedang about to tuck into his first-ever toasted marshmallow... :)

Sari with hers...

Thourn came back for seconds and thirds... :))

And then we danced some more... :)

We’ll be sad to leave tomorrow, but there is always the next time... September 2010...

In the next few days I’ll Post the last day’s activities from this trip – and an unexpected turn of events...

Wednesday was Pancake Day!!

2010-01-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

We got to school at 5.45 today – earlier than the kids, so we could set-up...
We had our ingredients – pancake mix and bottled water, and for toppings we had a choice of chocolate spread or honey, with fresh bananas!!

We combined both 6am classes into the one classroom and started the class by teaching the ‘words of the day’ – cooking, pancakes, pancake mix, water, stove, pan, flip, chocolate, honey, bananas and of course – EAT!! The kids wrote down the words and the process, and then we demonstrated... A couple of volunteers helped stir the pancake mix and the water and then we used the 3 camp-stoves we bought ($5 each... :)) to cook pancakes for everyone...

First we had to learn some English words and write them in our books...

Then we could start mixing the pancake mix with the water and stir...

Then we cooked...

And chose our toppings...

And then we ATE!!...

Nothing went to waste... :)

And we kept cooking and cooking – from the 6am classes, to the orphanage and the afternoon classes, where we moved the ‘kitchen’ outside the classrooms to accommodate the huge crowds... When it got dark at 6pm, we cooked under torchlight... right until 7.30 at night... :)

Making pancakes at the orphange

Steph cooking with the girls at the orphanage...

Mich flipping her pancake...

Yum!!

Cooking in front of the classrooms in the afternoon...

First ever pancake...

And first ever pancake too...

As night fell, we kept on cooking right through to 7.30pm... :)

And we all had fun!!...

:)))

Alex and Jess had a bit of a chocolate-spread fight to finish-off the night... :))

We made hundreds of pancakes with the kids... All eagerly consumed with the choice of toppings... A day to remember!!

Tomorrow's our last day - PARTY TIME!!...

Monday was 'Opposites' Day and Tuesday was Sports Day...

2010-01-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

Back to our school-day routine – get-up at 5am, leave by 5.30, stop at the market to buy some fruit for the orphanage ‘morning tea break’ and get to the school by 6.15 in time for the first class... At about 7.30-8am we head to the orphanage and teach there until 11am when the kids break for lunch (an early lunch as they get-up so early). We then fill our time until 2-3pm when we head back to the school for the afternoon classes until 7pm...
The kids at school were very excited to see us back after our week away – lots of ‘How are you?’ and ‘Shalom’ and ‘Where have you been?’... And of course there was the added bonus of seeing Alex and Mich again, as well as meeting Jess!!

On Monday we taught the kids words and their opposites – we had the kids list some opposite words on the board and write them in their books – and then we played some games... We find that repeating and writing the words is helpful in the kids absorbing, but playing the games helps in recollecting the words and is a FUN way to learn...

Jess and Mich taking the 'Opposites' class at the orphanage

Sari writing down some of the 'opposites' words on the board...

At the packed 5-6pm class Steph and Alex decided to have a competition to see who could find the pair of 'opposites' faster...

...And the kids LOVED it!!... :))

Tuesday started early as we had to prepare for our Sports Day activities – we combined the 2 early morning classed and had about 50 kids spread over 4 teams... 4 very competitive teams... :)

We played some team ball games, 'duck races' and word games – and of course had ribbon ceremonies at the end of each class – for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place-teams... Needless to say everyone got a ribbon... And THANK YOU to George and Patty at Office Works HO for donating the ribbons!!

Laughter, smiles and fun, fun, fun...

Playing 'tunnel ball' on Sports Day...

Carrying the ball between the knees and passing it on to the next team member without using hands... :))

The 'mandarin and spoon race' replaced the 'egg and spoon race' to save us having to boil the eggs... :)

Mich congratulating the team members and presenting them with their ribbons at the 'ribbon ceremony'...

Playing 'tunnel ball' at the orphanage... Some of the kids were too little to pass the ball between their legs... :))

'Kangaroo hopping' was one of our sports... :))

Morning tea - Tom, a volunteer from the UK, helping to distribute the bananas... Cost of a stalk of about 100 bananas?... $2.50... That's not a typo... $2.50...

The 'duck races' - blowing the ducks across the 'pond'... :))

And the girls got in there too...

'Poison ball' was a hit...

And posing with our ribbons... Everyon'e a winner of course... :))

The 'school bus'... Tourn giving some of the smaller kids a ride home after school...

Lunch...

On the next Post - Pancake Day... you wouldn't want to miss this... we made pancakes from 6am to 7pm... :)))

Our weekend excursion to Kulen Mountain!!

2010-01-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

At the orphanage before we left... Ready for our big day...

Kulen Mountain is part of the Kulen National Park – about an hour and a half from the orphanage. Being a higher altitude, it’s somewhat cooler than the normal 35 degrees around lunchtime... It’s also host to a giant reclining Buddha, some nature trails and 2 beautiful waterfalls – a wonderful day for a weekend day excursion with the kids...

We started out in a couple of tuk-tuks from the Guest House at 6.30am and switched to 2 minivans when we picked-up the kids at the orphanage. The photos paint the picture, but when I say ‘a couple of minivans’, there were 40 of us... Pretty much 2-to-a-seat, ‘Cambodian style’... We had 23 of us in the 11-seater van... :)

This van looked like one of those cars that people just kept-on coming out of... :)

How do you get 22 people in an 11-seater van?? You get VERY close... :)

We got to Mount Kulen by late morning and walked-up the 145 steps to the giant reclining Buddha. The kids said some prayers at a couple of shrines and Savong gave them a couple of short ‘educationals’ along the way...

We gave each of the kids some money to give to the poor (...) as they ascended to the reclining Buddha

The more needy are seated on the right as we go up the stairs...

That's one big reclining Buddha...

What goes up... :)

One of these guys hasn't cut his hair since 1984!!... :))

Having lunch...

After lunch we went down to the 2 waterfalls and had a ball – the water comes from deep within the ground and was cool and clear. Most of the kids went in for a dip or a swim, others just waded in the shallows, but we all had FUN!!...

Steph and some fans...

Lining-up for the photo...

The larger falls just down-stream...

And the stunning surroundings...

On Sunday we got up at 4am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat...

As did a few hundred other crazy people... :))

The ancient temples... over 700 years old...

Jess getting a blessing... Just look at the expressions on their faces... Priceless...

On Monday it's back to school - and another full-on week... We'll have Sports Day... and Pancake Day... And of course a surprise... :))

Let's Play Shop...

2010-01-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

Do you remember ‘playing shop’ when you were a kid, or playing with your kids/grandchildren? You know, keep the empty box of cornflakes, an empty milk carton, soap packaging, shampoo bottle and newspaper – put them all on the table in the back yard and have ‘customers’ come and ‘buy’ from you... Well, we thought it would be a great idea for the kids to practise their English and numbers by ‘playing shop’... And we were right – they got RIGHT INTO IT...

We first cut small rectangles out of white paper, and the kids all wrote $1 on their ‘bills’; we then laid the table full of goodies we bought at the market – we would have bought over 400 packs of snacks and lolly-pops for $18 - yes, $18..... :))

The kids then had to ‘come into the shop’ and say hello, ask how we were, and ask how much the item they wanted to buy was going to cost... And when they finished spending their ‘money’, they had to thank us and say ‘see you later’... :)

Check out these photos...

Setting-up our shop...

Ready for business...

'How much is this?'...

They got the hang of it pretty fast... :)

No customer's too young...

A lot less 'stock' in the shop already...

All our 'happy customers' at the orphanage class...

Steph running the 'shop' at school...

Didn't take long to get a line of 'customers'... :))

Aaaahhhhh, to be a kid again....... :)

The Happy Reunion at Phnom Penh Airport...

2010-01-03T04:23:00.000-08:00

Steph and I took a tuk-tuk to the airport in the morning to meet the new arrivals - and as you can see, Steph got quite a shock when Alex popped out from behind a column and tapped her on the shoulder...

Alex coming-up behind Steph...

What?!? Alex?!?....

''Oh my God!!''... That's all Steph kept saying over and over... :)

Just can't believe it... :))

Still in shock...

Finally caught her breath...

Phnom Penh airport

We took 3 tuk-tuks from the airport to our guest-house and dropped-off our bags before heading out to visit some of Phnom Penh's 'must see' sights...

Back in a tuk-tuk...

First-up was S-21, the high-school that during the Khmer Rouge rule was turned into a prison where high-level security prisoners were tortured before being sent to the Killing Fields. Haunting sights when you consider that the events of the Pol Pot regime took place only some 30 years ago!! A reminder of the mad and destructive bent of the human species - and that history repeats itself all too often...

Prisoners were chained to their beds between torture sessions - these large cells were used for high-profile prisoners

Prisoners included men, women and children, all accused of being 'enemies of the regime'

The 1 meter by 1 meter cells for 'regular' inmates - prisoners were tortured for 3-6 months before being sent to the Killing Fields. Only 7 prisoners were found alive when the prison was liberated. Only 1 Khmer Rouge leaders has so far been convicted of Crimes Against Humanity - several others are still 'awaiting trial' (more than 30 years later...).

At the Killing Fields we were confronted by hundreds of skulls in a memorial stupa, and the indentations in the ground, where the mass graves of over 15,000 people were dug-up... But more confronting was the fact that we were walking on the bones and clothes of the murdered... The private company that runs the Killing Fields site, does not see fit to build a low path OVER the remains, and the regular rains simply wash away the soil, exposing more remains and clothing, living visitors walking down the marked path no option but to act disrespectfully and walk on the remains... We honoured the dead, but frankly felt that we were being very disrespectful to the past and the dead... The experience was of course nothing like Yad VaShem or the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC - which it should be consideing that 1-1.7 million Khmer (the count varies significantly) were murdered. That's 20-25% of the population...

The Stupa at the Killing Fields - 17 storeys of skulls

The dug-up mass graves

Clothes and bones are everywhere on the ground. With 1 in 4 or 5 Khmers killed by the Pol Pot regime, there is no family living in Cambodia that has not been affeced.

The other major site we visited in Phnom Penh was the Royal Palace, which was very interesting as the Khmer religion includes elemenst of both Hinduism and Buddhism... Still a working palace, the king (not married) and royal family live and work on the grounds. The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda adjoining the palace were the only 2 major stuctures not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge - the king (the current king's father) remained in the palace as a prisoner.

The Throne Hall

Lots of gold... Used for coronations and State events

The palace staff wear a different colour (and different hair-dos for the ladies...) every day of the week... Kiry, our guide, is wearing red - for Sundays... :))

The girls cooling-off under the rain shower sprinkler...

Alex and Emma joined the palace musicians...

2 hot days were enough for us in Phnom Penh... Tomorrow we're off to Sihanoukville, a beach resort about a 4 hours' drive south...

I'll post some of last week's activities at the school and orphange in the next couple of days...

New Year's Eve - PARTY TIME!!

2010-01-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Boy, did we party!!

Steph and I hit the ground running at 6am at the school... We took out all the desks from one of the classrooms and invited-in all the kids from Kimhey and Sala’s classes into the one classroom – we had about 60 kids...

We wrote the day and date on the board as we always do, and then added a line under the date telling the kids that tomorrow was going to be a new year – 2010... We wrote Happy New Year on the board and told the kids we were going to have a party!! Well, by now they were all VERY excited – firstly no desks... then 2 classes combined... sitting on the floor in a large circle... AND having a PARTY!! :)

We gave out balloons to every child – some which blew-up to be not the usual balloon shape and were a real hit... After the balloon excitement settled, we played ‘pass the parcel’... Steph spent 3 hours the night before wrapping-up the prizes in layers of newspapers we brought with us from Australia (newspapers in Cambodia are a smaller sheet, don’t have many pages and aren’t cheap...). The prizes were cookies, lollipops, pencils, pens and tooth-brushes (which Steph now has a knack of collecing from airlines and hotels... :)) – the grand prize was a pack of Oreo Cookies!!

Pass the parcel - at 6am... :)

And the winner is...

Balloon... always a facination... :))

We also played a version of pin-the-tail-on-the donkey... Volunteers came up to the board, were blind-folded, spun around 5 times and then pointed to the board and the other kids suggested what they should draw – we all had a real laugh!!

Spinning our next contestant...

Not a bad bicycle...

Playing 'celebrity heads'...

We repeated our ‘Party class’ at the orphanage later in the morning and then Steph and I came back to Siem Reap for lunch (we don’t eat rice and there’s little else in rural Cambodia). After lunch we returned to the orphanage to spend more time with the kids... They all put on their new clothes and I must say, looked a million bucks!!

Pass-the-parcel at the orphanage

Doesn't take much to get a smile...

Not sure what was being drawn there... :)

Getting ready for our 'shooting balloon' competition...

Let 'em rip...

Some of our balloons had to be retrieved from the ajoining land... :))

The kitchen at the orphanage now has running water - thanks to the Nili and Friends water tank!! :)

The kids having lunch - rice and fish soup with veggies

My very first dress!!

Kruit's new outfit!!

Hey dudes!!

And another BIG thank you to NCJW for the money for the new clothes...

Our New Year’s Eve party at the 5-6pm class was also a huge hit – this is the class with 60+ students, so you can imagine the excitement and noise level... Lots of laughter and smiles – which is what it’s all about!!

Standing-room-only at the doorway...

Passing-the-parcel with on-lookers from outside...

Cute bunny... :)

A treat for everyone and lots of smiles..

And as if we weren’t partied-out by now, we took Savong and his family and teachers to the Pyramid (entertainment complex) for dinner and karaoke... Well, it was New Year’s eve after all... That REALLY sealed the day for us – and was a real treat for Savong, Aneed, Vissa, Sunna (Savong’s wife and daughters), Seyha, Chom Rong (2 of the older orphans) and the teachers – Sapphir, Kimhey and Sala.

Dinner with Savong and the team

Some New Year's traditions are the same all over the world...

Savong and I getting stuck into Heal the World...

Chom Rong belting out a love song... Aneed and Sala lapping it up... :)

A picture says a thousand words... :))

Savong and Aneed finishing-off the night with a duette... They sure love their karaoke... :)))

New Year’s day was an early one for us – we took the bus to Phnom Penh – about a 5 hour bus ride... One of those you hear about or see on adventure shows... Speeds of over 100km/hr, sudden breaking, cows on the road... Figured we’ll forgo the $80 plane ride for the $10 bus ticket and be ‘locals’... It was a bumpy ride (some serious roadwork needed in rural Cambodia), but with the money we saved we’ll throw a ‘going-away party’ at the orphanage – with ‘catering’, music, local monks’ blessings – the full shebang... We’ve arranged that for January 13 – so stay tuned... :)

Mich and Jess are flying-in tomorrow morning, along with Sharon and Emma (Mich’s sister and niece) – and a surprise guest!! Since Steph is asleep in the bed next to me and is unlikely to check the blog ahead of us going to the airport – I can tell you that Alex, who was in Cambodia with us in August, is coming with Mich and Jess. She’s been DESPERATE to come and her parents gave her the surprise airline ticket as a Christmas present on Christmas day!! (You’re pretty cool Mary and Johhny:)). Steph and Alex have been face-booking, emailing and SMSing for weeks about how Alex REALLY wanted to come back with us – and Alex got her wish a week ago and has done a great job in keeping-up appearances with Steph, who has no idea Alex is on the plane as I’m writing this Post!!

Stay-tuned for the pics tomorrow!!

For the next week we will be touring Phnom Penh (the Capital) and Sihanoukville (beach-side resort), before returning to the school and orphanage for our last week...

Wishing you all a LOVING, HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year!!... In our new clothes!!!...

2009-12-31T11:06:00.000-08:00

Seyha and Chom Rong picked us up on the tuk-tuk on Sunday morning and we met Savong with the 25 kids from the orphanage near the market – we all walked to the market together... You can imagine the excitement... These kids rarely get to go ‘on excursions’, let alone with overseas guests, to the market – and to BUY NEW CLOTHES...

Walking to the market...

The stall-keepers certainly had a great Christmas... :)

Spoilt for choice...

Anne, the US volunteer who joined us, with Noun, one of the orphans

The smile that says it all...

Savong being as patient as always...

Am only had 1 dress - the brown one she always wore... :)

The boys choosing belts

The kids at the orphanage only have a handful of clothing items – literally... One pair of navy blue pants and two white shirts for school... 2-3 t-shirts, 1-2 long sleeve shirts, 1-2 pairs of shorts, a pair of long pants and 2-3 pairs of underwear... Did you count that?!? That’s 10-15 articles of clothing!!! (I have more pairs of black socks than that!!! :)) And that’s for the school-aged children... the youngest ones don’t get the ‘luxury’ of school uniforms... They have 2-3 shirts/t-shirts and 1-2 pairs of shorts; the girls may also have a dress – and kids under 6 or 7 don’t wear underwear... Each of the younger kids has 5-6 articles of clothing – which of course they wear over and over and over and over... You get the drift...

Something for everyone... :)

Yip, I'm thinking John Travlota... :) We didn't buy this shirt, but the kids sure have a sense of humour... :))

The expression on the kids’ faces and their sincere appreciation truly humbled us... We live in a world of such plenty, that shopping for clothes is often ‘a chore’... I can’t count how many times Jess or Steph ‘lost it’ because they just couldn’t find “anything” after 2-3 hours of shopping... We really have no idea how richly blessed we are...

Looking for shoes...

My very first pair of shoes... And I'm not letting go of the blue bag with my new outfit...:))

This ice-cream vendor must have known she hit the jackpot with 25 kids in the one spot...

Ah, yes, we do like our ice-creams... :)

And no trip to the market would be complete without our fix of sugar cane...

This is Noun - the boy Anne was holding in an earlier photo... When you gotta go, you gotta go... :))

Noun is wearing his new outfit - he was just not getting out of it after trying it on...

All our goodies...

And after the market and the treats, we took the kids out for lunch at a restaurant... We all sat together – at the big ‘family table’...

The kids watching our table being set-up - and a few other diners relocated... :)

Our family table...

OK, we're ready...

Steph's i-phone was a big hit... Look at those serious faces...

THANK YOU again to the National Council of Jewish Women who donated money for us to buy the clothes !! I know that looking at the JOY in the kids’ faces will bring you lots of naches (pleasure)... It’s amazing to think that we bought dresses, shirts, pants, shoes, belts – at least a full set of clothing for every child!!

We had our New Year’s Eve party at the orphanage today and the kids all wore their new outfits – stay tuned for those pics!! :)

2009-12-29T03:37:00.001-08:00

Hannukah greetings and Merry Christmas from Cambodia!! Where else would you find Santa's helper with a Buddhist monk??...

We left Cambodia only physically back in September… We’ve been carrying Savong and the kids with us in our hearts and thoughts since that time… Of course there were emails, and Skype - and several opportunities to share our life-changing experience with groups in Melbourne, and even a group of 800 delegates attending the Engage Today conference in Calgary, Canada…

And on every occasion, the reactions were the same - people were touched by our story and many moved to tears as they shared our experience. From a gathering at my parents’ house, to an address at the National Council of Jewish Women on a cold rainy night, the Calgary conference and the FANTASIC fundraising activities at UR1… We’ve been blessed with donations worth several thousand dollars to bring back to the school and orphanage – so to all of you that have been so generous - THANK YOU!!

Friends of Nili and Uri Palti – Your money was used for a water tank for the orphanage, so the kids can take a shower without having to pump the water out of the ground and sit in a small tub while pouring water over their heads with a cup… And the toilet no longer needs a bucket to be flushed… THANK YOU!!

The new water tank at the orphanage

The plaque reads ‘A gift from Nili and Friends, Melbourne, Australia, September 2009′…

National Council of Jewish Women – Your money was used to buy new clothes and shoes for the kids – you know, a few hundred dollars go long, long, long way here in Cambodia… We took ALL 25 orphans to the market and they each got to choose new clothes and shoes!! For some of the kids these were THE FIRST EVER brand new clothes they ever got (usually they rely on hand-me-downs), some girls got their first ever dresses, a 3 year old boy got his first pair of shoes… Stay tuned for more photos, but a huge THANK YOU in the meantime!!

The kids were VERY EXCITED to go to the market and buy new clothes!!...

Do you think Am likes her new dress?... :))))

The team at UR1 – The funds you have raised from our Cambodia Blessings Market will be used for the new Chicken Coop and Fish Farm project – so the orphanage can generate an income rather than jest reply on donations. You have been amazing – in your generosity, enthusiasm and support THANK YOU!! (Especially to Megan and the Customer Care team!!)

One of the new fish ponds being dug, area all fenced-in

The chicken coop area

I’d also like to thank Bec and Chris, Mary and Tony and the Customer Care team for ‘adopting’ 3 of our orphans – we now have 25 orphans, up from the 17 we had when we left in September. THANK YOU for opening your hearts to these beautiful children!!

Here's some of what we taught in our first week...

2009-12-29T03:18:00.000-08:00

THE A-B-C and NEW WORDS...

We made alphabet letters with playdoug at the orphanage and used it as the basis for singing the ABC song – each kid got to hold-up the 1-2 letters they made and sing it out when it got to their letter... A-B-C-D-E-F-G... You get the drift...  We then wrote the alphabet on the board and listed words the kids knew under each letter... And finished-off with a game of hangman... :)

These kids never saw playdough before...

Didn't take them much to get a handle on it - flatten it, cokkie-cut it and hold-up you letter... :)

That's a lot of words for every letter...

We played Pictionary - this is our driver, and Savong's brother in law, Koi - he drew a chicken...

I wonder is Pablo Picasson also had such a time enjoying his artwork... :)

Am can hardlt reach the blackboard - see, she's standing on her toes...

But her Pictionary hearts we very cute... :)

Steph playing Boggle on the board...

We showed the kids the AV we made with the song we taught them last time – Heal The World... They all had to crowd around the laptop... :)

That's a lot of heads around a small screen...

ONE HAND, TWO HANDS...

We taught the kids the names of different body parts (single and plural... for some reason the Cambodians never add the ‘s’... one hand, two hand... one ear, 2 ear...). We then sang and danced the hokey-pokey... That was a lot of fun and the kids got to use the body parts we just learnt, as well ‘left’ and ‘right’... We had Anne, a volunteer from the US, join us – great to see the enthusiasm!!

Body parts on the board, we were ready for the hokey-pokey...

You put your right leg in... Well, most did... :))

NUMBERS

Ah, yes, numbers... We did a lot of work with numbers...

We counted from 1 to 50 forwards, and backwards... and called and spotted random numbers... We then had a couple of kids come-up at a time and compete as to who would be the first to point to the number we called out – they were VERY competitive... One short boy even complained that the girl who was paired was taller and he was therefore at a disadvantage... :)) He ended-up winning – just knew his numbers better than she did... :)

First we said hello and shook hands...

Then we did 'battle'... Who can point to the number being called first... Irrespective of your height... :)

Kedang - Winners are grinners... :)))

We also played lots of BINGO – we had prizes for every round and every class got addicted to it... Just one more game?... We played it 2-3 times in every class during the week – great way for the kids to learn the numbers, use the numbers – and then the winners had to call the numbers back to us to check-off the board... :)

Any idea what we're playing?...

BINGO!!

This week we’ll be playing SHOP, using the numbers we learnt, so stay tuned for that Post on the Blog...

But the next Post will be a beauty – we took the kids from the orphanage to the market on the weekend – to buy them ALL some new clothes and shoes... WHAT A TREAT – for them and for us...

Back at the School and Orphanage...

2009-12-29T02:39:00.000-08:00

It was a great reunion at the Siem Reap airport a week ago – Savong came to pick us up with Seyha, Chom Rong and La!! A bit like a family reunion...

We caught-up over lunch and Savong told us there were now 25 kids at the orphanage – 6 new kids arrived just last week and some of the younger ones were still getting used to living without their families... Imagine being 2-5 years old and leaving your family for a group of people you didn’t even know... All the kids had parents, but they had no food – a common story in rural Cambodia...

When we turned-up at the orphanage the next day, the kids excitedly ran to the gate when they heard our car coming down the dirt road... It was great to see some old faces – and the new kids were quick to bond with us, with the usual Savong-taught greeting...
“Hello, how are you?” We reply
“I’m fine too. What’s your name?” We reply
“How old are you?”... No idea why they ask that, but that’s the routine... :)

A group of students from Malaysia volunteered at the school for a couple of weeks last month and built a couple of open-air classrooms!! Great facility – the floor is tiled, the walls are only a meter high off the ground and the roof is thatched – so we get the breeze and have the countryside all around us through the ‘open windows’!! :)

There are also new staff members at the orphanage – a cook, a cleaner and a house-keeper/mother figure... AND a NEW WATER TANK - thank you again to my parents and their friends!! The kids can now have showers and flush the toilet without having to pump the water and sit in a tub... It’s amazing how much we can help, so easily...

The ‘Nili and Friends’ water tank

Work has also started on the Fish Farm and Chicken Coop next to the orphanage – these are fairly large-scale projects, with the idea being that the orphanage will be able to generate it’s own income rather than rely on donations. A Japanese donor and the UR1 Melbourne team (led by our Customer Care ladies) have made some significant donations towards this project and the fence has been put-in and fish pond dug out. Should all be done in a few weeks!!

Hard work in the hot sun... Local villagers digging the fish pond - Savong keeps the money ‘local’ if possible... That’s Le, one of the new orphans in front of me.

Our first week was ‘back to routine’... Up at 5am, get picked-up at 5.30, teach until 7.15 and then head to the orphanage... With the new open-air classrooms we took classes there from 8 to 11 – and were happy to be joined by some 10 local kids, as well as the orphans who studied at the government school in the afternoon.

During the lunch breaks we went to the market, order new desks for the orphanage, have lunch with savong, or just chill... Steph and I even managed a couple of father-daughter lunches, which was a bonus... :)

We returned to the school in the afternoons from 3 to 7 and then back to Siem Reap by tuk-tuk for dinner, a shower (can’t believe just how dirty/dusty we get...) and crawl into bed... (Remember we’re on holiday!!... :))